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Sea shanties and maritime music

"I've put in a good many hard years on shipboard," old Tom Shea told me, "and I've shipped with some queer lookin' crews, but let me tell ye that when the shanties was started everything got jolly and cheerful at once, and the men that never seen each other before acted like wot they was old friends. — And ye needn't think," he added, "that the shanties was all noise and yellin'. There was some fine singers in them old crews, and it was great to hear them at the shanties."

W. R. Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, 1928

This Day in History (February 29, 1908)

This Day in History (January 8, 1806)

The death of Lord Nelson was a national tragedy like no other for England. "From Greenwich to Whitehall Stairs, on the 8th of January, 1806, in one of the greatest Aquatic Processions that ever was beheld on the River Thames" drifted the royal shallop (barge). The event is referenced in the modern lament, Carrying Nelson Home. Nelson is mentioned in nearly a dozen other songs.

Try a random shanty sampling

Round the Corner
Hauling shanty

We're leaving sunny Mexico,
Ch: Round The Corner, Sally!
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go,
Ch: Round The Corner, Sally!

Round The Corner is a long, long way,
To Valipo and Callao Bay,
Round The Corner we must roam,
We don't care if we never go home.

Was you ever off Cape Horn,
Where your ass is never warm?

There's ice and snow and sleet and rain,
You'll meet them coming back again.

When we reach those Pacific seas,
We'll drop in to Madam Gashee's.

Them Spanish gals will make you smile,
You'll want to stay for a long, long while.

It's up aloft this yard must go,
Cuz Mr. Mate has told us so.
La Danaë
Forecastle song

L'était une frégate, lon, la
Ch: L'était une frégate,
C'était la Danaë,
Ch: Aprendr'un ris!
Ch: C'était la Danaë
Ch: Aprendr'un ris dans les huniers!

A son premier voyage, lon, la,
La frégate a sombré

Et de tout l'équipage, lon, la,
Un gabier s'a sauvé

Il aborde sur la plage lon, la,
Il savait bien nager.

Mais la, sur le rivage, lon, la,
Une belle éplorée.

Belle comm'une frégate, lon, la,
Française et pavoisée

"Pourquoi pleurer, la belle lon, la,
Pourquoi si tant pleurer."

Je pleure mon pucelage, lon, la,
Dans la mer qu'est tombé.

Et qu'aurait donc la belle, lon, la
Celui qui vous l'rendrait?

Lui en ferai offrande, lon, la,
Avec mon amitié

A la première plonge, lon la,
L'marin n'a rien trouvé.

A la centième plonge lon, la,
L'gabier s'a noyé.

Car jamais pucelage, lon, la,
Perdu, n'est retrouvé

The Sea Serpent
The Lawlands o' Holland
Forecastle song

The love that I hae chosen,
I'll therewith be content;
The saut sea sall be frozen
Before that I repent.
Repent it sall I never
Until the day I dee;
But the Lawlands o' Holland
Hae twinn'd my love and me.

My love he built a bonny ship,
And set her to the main,
Wi' twenty-four brave mariners
To sail her out and hame.
But the weary wind began to rise,
The sea began to rout,
And my love and his bonny ship
Turned withershins about.

There sall nae mantle cross my back,
Nor kaim gae in my hair,
Neither sall coal nor candle light
Shine in my bower mair;
Now sall I choose anither love
Until the day I dee,
Sin' the Lawlands o' Holland
Hae twinn'd my love and me.

Noo haud your tongue, my daughter dear,
Be still, and bide content;
There's ither lads in Galloway;
Ye needna sair lament.
O, there is nane in Galloway,
There's nane at a' for me.
I never lo'ed a lad but ane,
And he's drown'd in the sea.
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